Kolaches with Grandma

One of the things I love about my grandma is that she loves to cook. After staying with her for a week and a half I really came to appreciate her love of being in the kitchen. I've been really into learning about my family history so I spent my time in Wisconsin asking about my grandparents' childhood. One thing I asked my grandma was if her mom loved cooking too. I figured she did because my grandma liked it so much. I was wrong. My grandma was number 7 out of 9 kids. When she was old enough she took over the cooking for her mom. They lived on a farm so there was a lot to do and my great-grandma had other things to get done throughout the day. My great-grandma also didn't speak or read much English. That made it difficult to follow recipes. One of the main reasons though for my grandma's early use of the kitchen was because she had to have glasses. What? Glasses? What does that have to do with her cooking at a young age? Because glasses were so expensive back then her family didn't let her go into the barn to do chores. My great-grandparents didn't want her glasses to break. 

As time moved forward cooking and baking became her thing. She doesn't feel like she is great at cooking (something I disagree with), but she finds it relaxing. If her blood-pressure is high she bakes something and it helps bring it down. Every day I was there I offered to wash dishes, but she refused because she likes doing them. 

On this visit I had the joy of helping her bake a few things. It was so fun. We spent a lot of time laughing. Especially when I unknowingly gave her a hard boiled egg when we were making cookies. It took us a few seconds to figure out why it wasn't cracking right. A few days before I left we made kolaches. They are similar to a danish. This is a treat I always remember her making when we came to visit. I loved waking up to the smell of them in the morning. They were so good. 

I'm so thankful for the sweet time with my grandma last week. What a wonderful blessing.